IRS officer Jayant Misra appointed DG DRI

Senior IRS officer Jayant Misra was today appointed as Director General of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), ending eight months of vaThe move comes two days after a Special Investigation Team (SIT) asked the DRI to verify if USD 505 billion was transacted out of the country between 2004 2013 as part of trade-based money laundering.

With the approval of competent authority, Jayant Misra has been transferred to DG DRI, Delhi, a government order said.

Misra is currently DG (Systems) at the Directorate General of Systems and Data Management here.

Najib Shah, who is now Chairman of Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC), was holding the charge of DG DRI. Shah was in May last year appointed Member in the board, apex policy making body for indirect taxes.

In October, Shah was appointed as CBEC chief and continued to hold the charge of DRI, entrusted with responsibilities to check customs duty evasion and blackmoney.

Senior bureaucrat S Ramesh has been appointed DG (Systems) in place of Misra. Ramesh at present is Chief Commissioner of Customs in Chennai, the order said.cancy of the post.


Provident Fund interest rate hiked to 8.8% for 2015-16 financial year


Retirement fund body Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has increased the PF interest rate to 8.8 per cent for 2015-16 financial year.

Sources said, the EPFO has decided to hike the interest rate after it was approved by the Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya in the recently held meeting.
The existing interest is 8.75 per cent and it was increased by 0.05 %.

It was learnt that EPFO Finance Audit and Investment committee (FAIC) had early recommended 8.95 percent interest on PF deposits for the current fiscal. But it was brought down to 8.8 %.

As per rule, fixing the interest rate solely depends on EPFO's apex decision making body - Central Board of Trustees (CBT) because it provides rate of return from its own income without any assistance from the government.